Lumpkin, Gannaway, and the DPD-Army Intelligence network

[Richard Price]

Steve, I'm sure that many of you posting here already know that LING-TEMPCO-VOUGHT was partly owned by David Harold Byrd (TSBD owner) along with James Ling and Troy Post.  According to a Wikipedia post, Byrd and Post provided the funding to make a hostile takeover of Chance Vought Aerospace sometime in 1961-1962.  I'm posting this for others like me who aren't quite as deeply read on the peripheral players.  Thank you and many others for posting your information here for all to see.

[Bill Simpich]

A few notes before I forget them, primarily on Lumpkin and Corso:

1.  Here's a memo from Westbrook to Lumpkin on the employment of Tippit back in 1957.  This is the "metadata" - another reason the Archives should scan their holdings.

1. [No Title]
Record Number: 180-10100-10327

 

 

 

Record Series: NUMBERED FILES      Agency: HSCA
Agency File No.: 001840      Originator: DALLAS POLICE DEPARTMENT
From: WESTBROOK, W.R.      To: LUMPKIN, GEORGE
Date: 01/31/1957      Pages: 1
Subjects: TIPPIT, J., EMPLOYMENT;
Document Type: MEMORANDUM      Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Restrictions: OPEN IN FULL      Current Status: OPEN
Date of Last Review: 05/19/1993      Opening Criteria: [empty value]
Comments: Box #:38.

 

2.  In 1959, Oswald spent 16 days in a freighter on his way to Moscow with three passengers, George Church (a recently retired Lt. Colonel from the Army), who thought Oswald was "unfriendly"; the colonel's wife, who surprised LHO by asking for his residential address despite their unpleasant time together, and Billy Joe Lord, who by the 70s was convinced that LHO was part of a CIA operation.

 

3.  Look for Tink Thompson's new book Last Second in Dallas later this year, which will include a discussion of Lumpkin...

The official copy of the Dallas police dictabelt of the police radio transmissions made ... and the shots recorded on it - is missing from the National Archives (Mal Hyman, Burying the Lead, p. 134)  Lumpkin turned the original radio transmissions over to the Secret Service - and the originals are now missing!

Secret Service records show that on or before November 29, 1963, DPD Chief Lumpkin provided the recordings to Special Agents Roger C. Warner and Elmer W. Moore for "transcription". Rather than transcribing the belts himself, Warner copied the recording to tape.

The tape was then sent to the Secret Service Protective Research Section in Washington for "filtering, rerecording and transcription", after which it was supposed to be returned to the Secret Service office in Dallas. In 1970, researcher Paul Hoch asked both the Secret Service and the National Archives to search for this tape, but no trace of it could be found. THE HSCA also tried unsuccessfully to pursue the issue of Secret Service access to the dictabelts. Staff researcher Margo Jackson contacted Tom Ferrell of the Secret Service on January 24, 1978 and “inquired about material regarding the filtering, rerecording, and transcription requested to be performed on the above tapes”. Ferrell replied that he “would have to check with the Assistant Director of the Washington Protective Research Section, whose name he would not disclose”, and promised to call Ms. Jackson back. Unfortunately, there is no record of any further communication with or from Ferrell. On September 23, 1981, Paul Hoch suggested to Professor Ramsey that a search for Warner's tape - requested by the Ramsey Panel as opposed to an individual researcher - might be worthwhile. There is, however, no evidence to suggest that such a request was made by the Ramsey Panel, or that any search was made on their behalf.


SA Roger Warner with Marina & Marguerite Oswald

The Warner tape was copied in Washington, and a transcript was made. This transcript first came to light in 1982, when researcher Mark Allen found it among the records of the Secret Service. The transcript was apparently omitted from the agency's material given to the Warren Commission in 1964. As a result of Allen's discovery, I again requested both the Secret Service and the National Archives to renew their search for the tape made by Warner and the further copy made by the Protective Research Section in Washington. However, no trace of either recording could be found in late 1982...

(Bill's note:  Where did the late Jim Bowles stand on this story?  He repeatedly changed his version.  In his final veraion, he gave the originals back to Lumpkin!)

Former DPD Sergeant Jim Bowles was interviewed by the FBI on August 27 and September 15, 1980. The interview report, dated October 1, 1980, and covering both interviews, states in part: "The original belts and discs, containing recordings of radio transmissions at or about the time of the assassination of President Kennedy were provided to the FBI within a few days of that event.

Several days later an FBI Agent returned the belts and discs to Captain Bowles personally".i

In an interview with Dallas researcher Gary Mack in March 1982, Bowles corrected his statement to the FBI, and said that it was the Secret Service who "took those blue belts" out of the DPD building a few days after the assassination. Asked when the belts were returned, Bowles said "not for a few days, we were awfully busy then". Bowles also told Mack that he could not give any assurance that the belts which were returned were the ones which left the possession of the DPD.

In October 1983, Bowles gave me a slightly different sequence of events. He said that Chief Lumpkin gave the belts to the Secret Service, who in turn passed them on to the FBI, who then returned them to him. When he received them back, Bowles said he returned the belts to Chief Lumpkin.

It would appear that Bowles' 1982 and 1983 recollection about which government agency had the dictabelts was more accurate than his 1980 recollection for the FBI.

(Chris Scally, The Chain of Possession, 1999)

Josiah Thompson sent me this note recently - I do not think he will mind if I reproduce it here:

The Ramsey Panel claimed they were (operating) with original versions of recordings from Channel I and II on November 22nd.  Chris carried out a multi-decade study of the provenance of the various copies of Channel I and Channel II and concluded there was no evidence that any of these were originals. 

I got Jim Barger involved again and he concluded the same from timing studies.  Even more important, he carried out an exhaustive study of 60 cycle line voltage hums that showed that the material used by both Barger and the Ramsey Panel were second or third generation copies and clearly not originals.

On at least two---and possibly three---occasions between 2011 and (2014) Gary Mack told me of a story Jim Bowles had told him.  Said Bowles, the Secret Service had taken the materials obtained from the Dallas Police to Tinker Air Force Base near Denver and used an electronic machine to copy and possibly enhance the materials. 

 

This machine was at Tinker AF Base because it was often used to copy tapes for use by hometown papers or the like for airmen and their families.  It was supposedly used to copy a tape recorded by one of the legends of Rock 'n Roll before he was killed in a plane crash.  I could find nothing about this in the Index for Gary's magazine but I sent it on to Chris for his study.  

 

4.   The day before he died, LHO tried to call John David Hurt - formerly with Army Counterintelligence Corps in Europe and Japan (1942-1946)

 

On 11/23/63, operator Alveeta A. Treon stated to the HSCA that LHO gave to Louise G. Swinney, supervisor of the Dallas City Hall telephone operators, two phone numbers in Raleigh, North Carolina:  (919) 834-7630 and (919) 833-1253.  Swinney wrote down the numbers, alerted two unidentified men who were eavesdropping in the next room, and began to dial the first number.  Treon's statement:

 

"I was dumbfounded at what happened next.  Mrs. Swinney opened the (telephone) key to Oswald and told him, 'I'm sorry, the number doesn't answer.'  She tehn unplugged and disconnected Oswald without ever really trying to put the call through.  A few moments later Mrs. Swinney tore the page off her notation and threw it into the wastebasket."  

 

The HSCA reported:  Her (Mrs. Treon's lasting impression of the events that night is that Mrs. Swinney had been instructed by someone to not put the call through for Oswald."

 

In 1978 the HSCA contacted John David Hurt...in Raleigh, NC (phone #919-834-7430).  Hurt received a law degree from the University of Georgia, but never practiced.  He was formerly with Army Counterintelligence Corps in Europe and Japan (1942-1946) and was recently in the insurance business...he was disabled in 1955 and received full government disability.  John Hurt told HSCA investigators that he had phone number 919-834-7630 for the last 20 years."  (Note:  Hurt denied knowing Oswald - above is from John Armstrong's Harvey and Lee, p. 931)

 

Wikipedia describes Hurt's outfit, the Army CIC, as consisting of "highly trained special agents":

 

"The CIC had its origins in the Corps of Intelligence Police founded by Ralph Van Deman in 1917. This organization, operating within the USA and on attachment to the American Expeditionary Force in France, at its peak numbered over 600 men. However, in the post-war period, the policy of isolationism, retrenchment of military spending and economic depression meant that by the mid-1930s its numbers had fallen to fewer than 20 personnel.

The looming threat of war in the late 1930s brought an expansion of the CIP back to its World War I levels, and the entry of the United States into World War II in December 1941 brought an even greater expansion, and a new name.

On 13 December 1941 the Adjutant General of the Army issued an order renaming the CIP as the Counter Intelligence Corps, effective from 1 January 1942.^[1] A new complement of 543 officers and 4,431 non-commissioned agents was authorized. The CIC recruited men with legal, police or other investigative backgrounds, and particularly looked for men with foreign language skills. Special CIC teams were created during World War II in Europe, in large part from the Military Intelligence Service personnel (see Ritchie Boys). However, there were never enough of these and local interpreters were often recruited.^[2]

As most CIC agents in the field (as well as Military Intelligence Service in Europe) held only non-commissioned officer rank— corporals and various grades of sergeant— they wore either plain clothes, or uniforms without badges of rank; in place of rank insignia, and so as not to be perceived as privates, agents typically wore officer "U.S." collar insignia. They were instructed to identify themselves only as "Agent" or "Special Agent" as appropriate, in order to facilitate their work. These practices continue among modern counterintelligence agents.^[3]

Within the U.S. the CIC, in collaboration with the Provost Marshal General and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), carried out background checks on military personnel having access to classified material, investigations of possible sabotage and subversion, and allegations of disloyalty, especially those directed against Americans of Japanese, Italian or German ancestry. Despite the prohibitions in the delimitation agreement with the FBI, the CIC ended up devoting considerable effort to civilian investigations...

CIC units were also involved in providing security for the Manhattan Project, including duty as couriers of fissionable bomb materials from Los Alamos, New Mexico to Tinian. They also operated in 1945 at the United Nations Organizing Conference in San Francisco, over which Alger Hiss presided as secretary-general.^[8] Three years later, when Alger Hiss was accused of being a Communist and filed a libel suit against his accuser, his lawyers unwittingly hired an undercover CIC Special Agent as their Chief Investigator to help prepare his libel suit.^[9]

At the end of World War II CIC agents were successful in an operation called “Paper Clip” that obtained German Rocket Scientists for America before the Soviets took them. This action aided in the success of the American rocket development program and resultant adventure into space. CIC actively continued counterintelligence activities in the Cold War, Korean War and Vietnam War.  (My note:  Michael Paine's boss, Walter Dornberger, was one of those German rocket scientists....The CIC had experiences in working with defectors.)    One of CIC's operations in post-war Europe was the operation of a "rat-line" – a conduit for spiriting informants and defectors out of the Soviet Zones of Occupation to safety in South America, via Italy, with false identities paid for by CIC. 

Some of the officers at the CIC - J. D. Salinger - Washington Post spook-friendly journalist Walter Pincus, and Colonel Philip Corso.

Corso worked to smuggle 10,000 Jews with the Zionist forces from Italy to Palestine, where they were integral in establishing the successful battle to establish Israel.   He was the personal emissary to Giovanni Battista Montini at the Vatican, later Pope Paul VI, during the period when the "Nazi Rat Lines" were most active.

CIA Historical Staff's research (e.g., see p. 357 of this document) shows that X-2's James Angleton and future Domestic Contacts Division chief James R. Murphy led the intelligence reporting on the efforts to smuggle these Jews into Palestine.   The article claims that Angleton monitored Israel until 1973 because of fears the Soviets had penetrated Israeli intelligence.  (p. 385).  That may be too facile an explanation.

James Murphy later spearheaded the monitoring of Robert Webster as he maneuvered his defection into the Soviet Union, two weeks before Oswald.

 

[Robert Montenegro]

39 minutes ago, Bill Simpich said:

One of CIC's operations in post-war Europe was the operation of a "rat-line" – a conduit for spiriting informants and defectors out of the Soviet Zones of Occupation to safety in South America, via Italy, with false identities paid for by CIC. 

Some of the officers at the CIC - J. D. Salinger - Washington Post spook-friendly journalist Walter Pincus, and Colonel Philip Corso.

He was the personal emissary to Giovanni Battista Montini at the Vatican, later Pope Paul VI, during the period when the "Nazi Rat Lines" were most active.

CIA Historical Staff's research (e.g., see p. 357 of this document) shows that X-2's James Angleton and future Domestic Contacts Division chief James R. Murphy led the intelligence reporting on the efforts to smuggle these Jews into Palestine.   The article claims that Angleton monitored Israel until 1973 because of fears the Soviets had penetrated Israeli intelligence.  (p. 385).  That may be too facile an explanation.

James Murphy later spearheaded the monitoring of Robert Webster as he maneuvered his defection into the Soviet Union, two weeks before Oswald.

 

On that note, it should be noted that J. Edgar Hoover was a revanchist anti-communist to the extant that he helped US Army Counterintelligence (Hoover was a G-2 Staff US Army Reserve Lieutenant Colonel before WWII) capture and protect tens of thousands of European fascists after WWII and repatriate them in the Western Hemisphere. Now, how Director Hoover did this is long and drawn out history, but two factors were central to this: 

J. Edgar Hoover was the chief FBI liaison officer to INTERPOL from 1930 to 1941. This is the same time period that INTERPOL was under the control of Schutzstaffel. Specifically, FBI Director and US Army Lt. Col. Hoover was working in direct communication with the Directors of INTERPOL at the time, who were all Generals in the SS, including SS-Oberführer Otto Steinhäusl, SS-Obergruppenführer Ernst Kaltenbrunner, SS-Gruppenführer Arthur Nebe and SS-Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich, all chief executives to the future mass murder of thirty-million civilian men, women and children during the Nazis’ “Blood And Soil” campaign, later known as “The Final Solution”. Because of this decade-long relationship with the leaders of the Nazi security and intelligence apparatus, FBI Director Hoover knew the identities of thousands of Nazi industrial security personal, which would later help the US State Department and the CIA in their “Operation Paperclip” and “Operation Bloodstone” programs. And if a few million peons were massacred in Central Europe, it did not matter to Mr. Hoover, they were Jews and Communists.

FBI Director Hoover was the commander of US Military intelligence in Central and South American during WWII (let that sink in). The FBI had a secret organization run out of the War Department (now called the Department of Defense) called the “Special Intelligence Service” and it was tasked by the president Roosevelt, thru the Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs Chief, Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller with ferreting out Axis spies. Director Hoover and Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs Rockefeller did no such thing. Instead, all throughout (and well after WWII), Mr. Hoover and Mr. Rockefeller oversaw the movement of Nazi funds, industrial hardware and technical data into Central and South American, away from the hands of the advancing Red Army.

The program to transfer the Nazi financial bulk and weapons data was called “Project SAFEHAVEN”. The five men in charge of coordinating “Project SAFEHAVEN” were OSS Commander Allen Welsh Dulles, OSS US Navy Lt. William Joseph "Bill" Casey, US Army Col. James Hardesty Critchfield, Col. William Wilson "Buffalo Bill" Quinn and OSS US Navy Lt. Richard McGarrah Helms (Helms, Dulles and Casey would later become Directors of the CIA, Quinn would become Director of the Strategic Services Unit and Defense Intelligence Agency and Critchfield would become the top CIA expert on Near East intelligence affairs). 

It should also be noted that all eight-hundred FBI Special Intelligence Service agents who were working in Central and South America were later absorbed into the Central Intelligence Agency. 

In fact, the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s liaison to the Central Intelligence Agency on Warren Commission day-to-day matters was Sam J. Papich, a former FBI Special Intelligence Service agent during World War II (let that sink in).

Edited May 25, 2020 by Robert Montenegro

[Steve Thomas]

North American Aviation seems to be an interesting place.

http://jfk.hood.edu/Collection/Weisberg Subject Index Files/B Disk/Boxley Memos Miscellaneous/Item 06.pdf (page 2).

4. J. CARLIN BRANDT, chief, accounting clerk for Mobil Oil, moved from 601 N. Ewing St. in 1963 to 223 S. Ewing, Jack Ruby’s apartment house. Brandt is the name of the prime suspect in the Minute Man recruitment effort in the Matamorros bar six weeks before the assassination who told Alan Dale’s informant that the Minute Men had a contract to kill JFK. The latter Brandt - one John Brandt, combination gunsmith and Minute Man from the Ray Brantley circle in Dallas, a former employee of Brantley’s, dropped out of directory listings after the assassination, and Penn Jones advises via Mary now that John Brandt is living covertly at 2960 Colfing Green, Farmers Branch, Texas, another widely recognized residential area of Dallas, which was a hot-bed of anti-castro speeches and activities prior to the assassination. At the time of the killing, JOHN 3RANDT was living at 801 Rindie, Irving. He was given a job by LING-TEMPCO-VAUGHT, than disappeared about a year ago, ostensibly for an operation, and went into his present hiding in Farmers Branch.

History of Aviation in Grand Prairie

https://www.gptx.org/about-us/history/history-of-aviation-in-grand-prairie

Just southeast of Curtiss-Wright, Hensley Army Air Force Base opened in 1932. Although technically in Dallas, the base (which in 1943 was renamed Dallas Naval Air Station) would forever change Grand Prairie. In 1939, North American Aviation, an industry giant, chose a site west of Hensley Field for its new production plant.

On Sept. 28, 1940, North American broke ground on the new plant. North American’s plant was constructed of concrete and steel and was the first windowless, fully air-conditioned and artificially lit aircraft production facility in the U.S.  The plant was dedicated on April 7, 1941.

By the war’s end in 1945, employment had dropped to 15,000, all of whom lost their jobs on Aug. 14, 1945 when the government cancelled its contracts for war planes. North American returned the Grand Prairie facility to the government, which immediately began the task of finding a tenant.

Post War Era 1946-1960

Two former North American executives leased part of the vacant facility and created Texas Engineering and Manufacturing Company (Temco). By late 1946, the company employed 2,500.

John Simkin in the Education Forum December 2, 2006.

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/topic/8715-david-harold-byrd/

“In 1944 Byrd founded Byrd Oil Corporation and B-H Drilling Corporation. In 1952 Byrd established the Three States Natural Gas Company. Byrd later sold Byrd Oil to Mobil and Three States to Delhi-Taylor. Byrd used this money to invest in aircraft production and established Temco. A company that employed Mac Wallace after he was convicted of killing John Kinser.”

HSCA Deposition of Jack Todd July 11, 1978

https://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/russ/m_j_russ/todd.htm

Q. Well, do you remember what you did during the early '40's? Do you remember what you did during the war?
A. I worked at North American.
Q. North American?
A. Aviation.
Q. During the entire war years?
A. I was working there in '41 when the war broke out.
Q. And how long did you work there?
A. Quite awhile.
Q. Two, three years?
A. Could have been.
Q. Okay.

 

Q. (Mr. McDonald) Okay. Mr. Todd, have you ever heard of the Lois Green gang?
A. Yes, sir.

A. Lois Green was my personal friend.
Q. Uh-huh. When did you first meet Mr. Green?
A. About ' 39.

Q. Did you know an individual by the name of Benny Binion, B-I-N-I-O-N?
A. I know the name, yes, sir.

Q. Okay. Do you know an individual by the name of Joe Campisi?
A. I know Joe Campisi.

Q. How about Joe Civello, Joseph Civello?
A. I met Joe Civello, yes, very casually.

Q. Okay. How about Johnny Grizzaffi, G-R-I-Z-Z-A-F-F-I?
A. Yeah, I know Johnny.

Q. Joe Ianni?
A. Yeah, I knew Joe.
Q. I-A-N-N-S?
A. Yeah, I know Joe.
Q. And what's your relationship with him?
A. He had a restaurant and I would go in there and eat.
Q. What was the name of his restaurant?
A. Iann's.
Q. Isn't he related to you by marriage?
A. Pardon?
Q. Is he related to you by marriage?
A. No, my son is married to his daughter.

Steve Thomas

Edited June 17, 2020 by Steve Thomas

[Bill Simpich]

Steve Thomas' post about North American Aviation breaking ground in Dallas in 1940 shows how came to town besides aviation electronics employees like Oswald...any big enterprise like North American has to hire a lot of industrial security.

What kind of bad apples congregate around industrial security?   Spooks and grifters - i.e., Mafia and organized crime.

Dallas had more than its share of both.  Dallas had more spooks and organized crime figures than almost anywhere else in the Southwestern United States.  The Special Services Bureau dealt with them in equal measures:  Its focus was on subversives, narcotics, and prostitution.  Is it any wonder that Jack Ruby hung out around their office all the time?

Peter Dale Scott has several good narratives about that weekend in Dallas - here's the first one - I will post several of them in the days ahead for easy reference.  From his book Dallas '63, pp. 194-197:

"Two men in Dallas who functioned as part of the communications network of the Office of Emergency Planning (OEP), the agency renamed in 1968 as the Office of Emergency Preparedness (to which McCord was attached), and renamed again in 1982 as the National Program Office (NPO, for which Oliver North was the action officer.)

"These two men in Dallas were Winston Lawson, the Secret Service advance man who from the lead car of the motorcade was in charge of the Secret Service radio channels operating in the motorcade...

"...And John (Jack) Crichton, the army intelligence reserve colonel who with Deputy Dallas Police Chief George Lumpkin contributed to a 'Phase-One' story, when they selected the Russian interpreter for Marina Oswald's first DPD interview.

"Jack Creighton is of interest because he and DPD deputy chief George Lumpkin of the 488th Army Intelligence Reserve Unit (two friends...of Col. Frank Brrandstetter as well of each other) were responsible for choosing a Russian interpreter for Marina Oswald from the right-wing Russian community.

"This man was Ilya Mamantov, who translated for Marina Oswald at her first DPD interview on Nov. 22.  What she allegedly said in Russian in this interview (as mistranslated by Mamantov) was later used to bolster what I have called the 'Phase-One' story, still promoted from some CIA sources, that Russia and/or Cuba were behind the assassination."

 

[Robert Montenegro]

1 hour ago, Bill Simpich said:

Steve Thomas' post about North American Aviation breaking ground in Dallas in 1940 shows how came to town besides aviation electronics employees like Oswald...any big enterprise like North American has to hire a lot of industrial security.

What kind of bad apples congregate around industrial security?   Spooks and grifters - i.e., Mafia and organized crime.

Dallas had more than its share of both.

I know I have posted this elsewhere, but here it is again:

The Administrative Director of the "American Security Council" William K. Lambie Jr. was in direct contact with CIA terrorist Manuel Francisco Artime Buesa in 1963, a close associate of "Operation 40" assassin Everette "Eduardo" Howard Hunt Jr. 

William K. Lambie Jr. was formerly chief of intelligence for the FBI's "Mafia" desk.

That, and George Russell Wackenhut (William K. Lambie Jr.'s close friend on the "Society of Former Special Agents of the FBI"; here is a link proving that: http://jfk.hood.edu/Collection/Weisberg Subject Index Files/F Disk/FBI/FBI Miscellaneous 1972/Item 01.pdf) provided security for NASA, the Atomic Energy Commission test bases, RedBird Airport in Dallas, Texas and "assistance" for Clay LaVerne Shaw's defense team.

Here a link also connecting William K. Lambie Jr. to Patrick Joseph Frawley Jr. (of "Information Council of the Americas" infamy), William Douglas Pawley (a JM/WAVE asset), and Senator Thomas Joseph Dodd (who oversaw investigations into the illegal gun-smuggling [think Jack Ruby's Cuban adventures] and the "Fair Play for Cuba Committee" and lobbied for the Belgian company "Société Générale de Belgique-Union Minière du Haut-Katanga's" covert support for Moïse Tshombe to be leader of breakaway Katanga):

https://www.nytimes.com/1970/08/17/archives/anticommunist-council-prepares-a-voting-index-on-congress.html

Clearly, the American Security Council, an organization which conducted background checks on personnel hired at industrial security plants, had an operational interest in personalities within the Mafia and the anti-Castro Cuban terrorist community, both narcotics trafficking elements and under the firm thumb of the CIA "JM/WAVE" Station.

[Bill Simpich]

Robert, that is good stuff about industrial security.

Since Peter doesn't mention this part about Ilya Mamantov's roommate and mother-in--law - let me share it here - she was a Russian woman named Dorothy Gravitis.

Ruth Paine testified that she took a summer course at the University of Pennsylvania in 1957, two Berlitz courses in Philadelphia in 1958 and 1960, some private lessons with Mrs. Dorothy Gravitis, (I think she paid for two at Berlitz, and then they came friends and had some home sessions) and the 1959 summer course at Middlebury.[

Dorothy told the Warren Commission that Ruth told her that she thought Lee was an undercover agent for the Soviets.  Ruth denied it.

My point is not that Ruth said it - but that Dorothy believed it.   She said it under oath. 

I find Dorothy Gravitis fascinating.  She was born in Latvia, in the late 1800s, she was 74 when she testified.  Her husband was sent to Siberia during the war and died there many years later.   She and Mamantov and her daughter lived  together since 1943, and from 1945-1949 in a displaced persons (DP) camp.  She saw things I can only imagine.  With all that said - Do you want her son-in-law as your translator in a hot situation?

Ilya Mamantov actually testified with Dorothy - because of her age.  Both of them are very articulate.  Ilya explains to the WC that Marina and Dorothy talked about Lee, and Marina told Dorothy that Lee was "ideinyi" - a very particular concept - one who aspires to the ideals of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, but is not yet a member.

When Marina told Dorothy that LHO was "ideinyi" - Ilya Mamantov says:

"When mother heard this word from Marina, she couldn't talk to her anymore or ask her any more questions.  

"Because this stage of the person becoming a full time member Communist was most dangerous for the people in Russia or in Latvia, or in the Soviet Union."

WC attorney David Belin:  "What do you mean by the most dangerous?"

Dorothy takes over from Ilya Mamantov here:  "I mean that this is the most dangerous stage, because this person - or during this stage - they are spying on other people.   They are spying on other people to gain personal reward from other communistic people."

Ruth wanted to bring Marina by Dorothy's place - Dorothy made it clear that Marina was welcome but not Lee.  Dorothy was convinced that Lee was in the final stage of trying to join the Communist Party - just from what Marina had said to her - and that description convinced her that Oswald was a spy and she didn't want him spying on her.

I'm not saying I agree with Dorothy.  She never met Lee Oswald.  I am saying that Dorothy knew that more was going on - just from talking with Marina.

Dorothy confirmed something else I had always suspected (Marina's testimony is too convoluted for me to take in) - why did Lee want Marina to go back to the USSR (and he wanted to go too):  Ruth told Dorothy "She was pregnant...Lee said that he doesn't have money to pay doctor bills, but he had enough money to send her back to the Soviet Union." 

Dorothy told Ruth to be more careful.  Ruth said, "Don't worry."  Dorothy told the Warren Commission:  "Mrs. Paine is an American woman, and she is very naive."

There's someone who knew right away that Ruth Paine was not always the smartest person in the room.

 

[Paul Brancato]

Bill - the snippet you quoted from Peter Dale Scott’s work Dallas ‘63 is what got me started on Jack Crichton. I’m pretty sure my copy of that book is a pre publication paper version that Mr. Scott gave me when I met him while researching my trading cards. So when I saw hints in Gasis’ book on Skorzeny that Crichton knew him, having met him in Span in the early ‘50’s while negotiating drilling rights I wished that Mae Brussell had been still with us.

Robert - ASC - what a bunch of nazi lovers, a real vipers nest. 

[Steve Thomas]

3 hours ago, Paul Brancato said:

 Gasis’ book on Skorzeny that Crichton knew him, having met him in Span in the early ‘50’s while negotiating drilling rights

Paul,

Speaking of drilling rights, I loved this part of Jack Todd's HSCA testimony:

Q. That will be done in the near future. Okay. Mr. Todd, what is the nature of your business Todd Oil Company?
A. I drill wells and operate wells.
Q. Uh-huh. And how many employees do you have?
A. I only have one employee.
Q. Okay. Is it also known as Todd Investment Company?
A. J.R. Todd Oil and investment Company I is another separate entity.
Q. Okay. And would you please describe that for us?
A. Well, I drill wells and operate wells under that name.
Q. Okay. And how many employees do you have under that company?
A. Just one.
Q. Okay. Do you contract out?
A. Contract everything out.
Q. I see. Okay. And how long have you had this business?
A. Since back in the 40's.
Q. And has it been at the same address?
A. No, at one time I was at 1022 National Bankers Life Building.
Q. Here in Dallas?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Okay. Do you have any partners in this -- Do you have partners in these businesses?
A. No, sir.
Q. You are the sole proprietor?
A. My children and myself are, yes.

One man band that guys is, yes sir.

Steve Thomas

[Bill Simpich]

Here's the following segment on Mamantov's testimony from Peter Dale Scott's Dallas '63 (pp. 195-196): 

"As summarized by the FBI, Mamantov's account of Marina's Russian testimony linked it to a gun owned by Oswald in the Soviet Union:

'MARINA OSWALD advised that LEE HARVEY OSWALD owned a rifle which he used about two years ago.  She observed what she presumed to be the same rifle in a blanket in the garage at (Ruth Paine's residence)...MARINA OSWALD stated that on November 22, 1963, she had been shown a rifle in the Dallas Police Department...She stated that it was a dark color like the one she had seen, but she did not recall the sight.'

"Mamantov's 'Phase-One' assassination clue was later discarded, even though it had supporting evidence at the time, also discarded.

""At the time the story was supported; in particular there was another discarded 'Phase-One' story, an army cable from an officer in the Dallas Police Department intelligence section, who like Crichton and Lumpkin was also in Army Intelligence:  

'Following is further information on Oswald, Harvey Lee (sic)...Assistant Chief Don Stringfellow, Intelligence Section, Dallas Police Department, notified 112th INTC (Army Intelligence) Group, this Headquarters, that information obtained from Oswald revealed that he had defected to Cuba  in 1959 and is a card-carrying member of the Communist Party.'

"This cable was sent on November 22 from the Fourth Army Command in Texas to the US Strike Command at Fort MacDill in Florida, the base poised for a possible retaliatory attack against Cuba.

"Today the cable utterly lacks credibility, but at the time there was supporting evidence for each of Stringfellow's two points.

"Stringfellow may have heard Oswald was a Communist from his boss in the Intelligence Section, Jack Revill, who reported on November 22 in a memo to his boss, Special Services chief W. P. Gannaway that Oswald "was a member of the Communist Party".

"We now know that a probable false "Oswald" did present a "Communist Party card" ( presumably also false) at the Cuban consulate in Mexico City.  (Stringfellow, Revill and Gannaway were all reportedly in Army Intelligence, i. e., Reserve."

"And the false story that Oswald had visited Cuba would seem to be vaguely corroborated by what Hoover told Robert Kennedy on the afternoon of November 22:

'I related that Oswald went to Russia and stayed three years, came back to the United States in June 1962, and went to Cuba on several occasions but would not tell us what he went to Cuba for.'

"Hoover's statement is one more indication that...there may have been an earlier file in circulation, perhaps on a 'Harvey Lee Oswald' to which he and possibly Stringfellow may have had access.

"The discarded 'Phase-One' story from Stringfellow in Dallas is of interest, and should persuade us to look at the discarded Mamantov 'Phase-One' story.   His specific details - that Marina said she had seen a rifle that was dark and scopeless - were confirmed in an affidavit signed by Marina and Mamantov, (24 WH 219) that was taken by DPD officer B. L. Senkel (24 WH 249). 

They were confirmed again by Ruth Paine, who witnessed the Mamantov interview (3 WH 82).

They were confirmed again the next night in an interview of Marina by Secret Service agent Mike Howard, translated by Mamantov's close friend Peter Gregory.  

(To be continued.)

 

[Paul Brancato]

3 hours ago, Bill Simpich said:

Here's the following segment on Mamantov's testimony from Peter Dale Scott's Dallas '63 (pp. 195-196): 

"As summarized by the FBI, Mamantov's account of Marina's Russian testimony linked it to a gun owned by Oswald in the Soviet Union:

'MARINA OSWALD advised that LEE HARVEY OSWALD owned a rifle which he used about two years ago.  She observed what she presumed to be the same rifle in a blanket in the garage at (Ruth Paine's residence)...MARINA OSWALD stated that on November 22, 1963, she had been shown a rifle in the Dallas Police Department...She stated that it was a dark color like the one she had seen, but she did not recall the sight.'

"Mamantov's 'Phase-One' assassination clue was later discarded, even though it had supporting evidence at the time, also discarded.

""At the time the story was supported; in particular there was another discarded 'Phase-One' story, an army cable from an officer in the Dallas Police Department intelligence section, who like Crichton and Lumpkin was also in Army Intelligence:  

'Following is further information on Oswald, Harvey Lee (sic)...Assistant Chief Don Stringfellow, Intelligence Section, Dallas Police Department, notified 112th INTC (Army Intelligence) Group, this Headquarters, that information obtained from Oswald revealed that he had defected to Cuba  in 1959 and is a card-carrying member of the Communist Party.'

"This cable was sent on November 22 from the Fourth Army Command in Texas to the US Strike Command at Fort MacDill in Florida, the base poised for a possible retaliatory attack against Cuba.

"Today the cable utterly lacks credibility, but at the time there was supporting evidence for each of Stringfellow's two points.

"Stringfellow may have heard Oswald was a Communist from his boss in the Intelligence Section, Jack Revill, who reported on November 22 in a memo to his boss, Special Services chief W. P. Gannaway that Oswald "was a member of the Communist Party".

"We now know that a probable false "Oswald" did present a "Communist Party card" ( presumably also false) at the Cuban consulate in Mexico City.  (Stringfellow, Revill and Gannaway were all reportedly in Army Intelligence, i. e., Reserve."

"And the false story that Oswald had visited Cuba would seem to be vaguely corroborated by what Hoover told Robert Kennedy on the afternoon of November 22:

'I related that Oswald went to Russia and stayed three years, came back to the United States in June 1962, and went to Cuba on several occasions but would not tell us what he went to Cuba for.'

"Hoover's statement is one more indication that...there may have been an earlier file in circulation, perhaps on a 'Harvey Lee Oswald' to which he and possibly Stringfellow may have had access.

"The discarded 'Phase-One' story from Stringfellow in Dallas is of interest, and should persuade us to look at the discarded Mamantov 'Phase-One' story.   His specific details - that Marina said she had seen a rifle that was dark and scopeless - were confirmed in an affidavit signed by Marina and Mamantov, (24 WH 219) that was taken by DPD officer B. L. Senkel (24 WH 249). 

They were confirmed again by Ruth Paine, who witnessed the Mamantov interview (3 WH 82).

They were confirmed again the next night in an interview of Marina by Secret Service agent Mike Howard, translated by Mamantov's close friend Peter Gregory.  

(To be continued.)

 

While I wait for the always anticipated continuation, it seems obvious that Army Reserve Intelligence officers, many of them also Dallas Police detectives, were immediately ready to launch into Phase 1. The question remains did the actual plotters have only Cuba on their minds, or a bigger picture that included Vietnam? Or both? When they launched phase 1 did they have phase 2 ready as well? They definitely tried to control the narrative. And considering that the Army Reserve/Dallas Police angle has for so long been in the shadows, have  they so far succeeded?

[Steve Thomas]

On 6/19/2020 at 4:47 PM, Bill Simpich said:

Here's the following segment on Mamantov's testimony from Peter Dale Scott's Dallas '63 (pp. 195-196): 

""At the time the story was supported; in particular there was another discarded 'Phase-One' story, an army cable from an officer in the Dallas Police Department intelligence section, who like Crichton and Lumpkin was also in Army Intelligence:  

'Following is further information on Oswald, Harvey Lee (sic)...Assistant Chief Don Stringfellow, Intelligence Section, Dallas Police Department, notified 112th INTC (Army Intelligence) Group, this Headquarters, that information obtained from Oswald revealed that he had defected to Cuba  in 1959 and is a card-carrying member of the Communist Party.'

"This cable was sent on November 22 from the Fourth Army Command in Texas to the US Strike Command at Fort MacDill in Florida, the base poised for a possible retaliatory attack against Cuba.

Bill,

The cable in question is actually a cable from Washington DC to Florida and summarizes a telephone conversation. Here's the header of that cable:

The phone conversation being summarized was between a Captain Saxton, J2 at US Strike Command and a Lt. Col Fons, Deputy Chief of Staff, Intelligence.

 

Dallas Morning News March 19, 1978. This is also from Weisberg's Collection:

"Army Apparently Didn't Tell Commission of Oswald's Alias"

http://jfk.hood.edu/Collection/Weisberg Subject Index Files/F Disk/FBI/FBI Records Release 12-7-77 News Accounts/Item 069.pdf

 

Officer Bill Biggio was directing police intelligence communications at the Fair Grounds office the day of the assassination.

He was working alongside Stringfellow that day.

Col. Roy Pate, in command of the 112th in Dallas said the information in the cable quoting Stringfellow "did not originate in Dallas".

I believe that Stringfellow contacted San Antonio directly and did not go through the office in Dallas. The cable says that Stringfellow contacted the 112 INTC GP this HQ.

 

See also page 3 of this Education Forum Thread:

"Stringfellow Cable"

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/topic/23493-stringfellow-cable/page/3/

 

Steve Thomas

 

[Paul Brancato]

I believe, without having proof, that the 488th MID had a direct link to ACSI, and that the deliberate obfuscation by Colonel Jones of the 112th in his testimony, and the almost total lack of visibility into the 488th, which most certainly existed - Colonel Brandstetter admitted as much - explains the weird discrepancies in the cable origins, as well as the false Oswald description that went out on DPD channels. It’s Colonel Jack Crichton that ran the Phase 1 story and the incrimination of Oswald.

Edited June 21, 2020 by Paul Brancato

[Robert Montenegro]

1 hour ago, Paul Brancato said:

488th MID had a direct link to ACSI, and that the deliberate obfuscation by Colonel Jones of the 112th in his testimony, and the almost total lack of visibility into the 488th, which most certainly existed - Colonel Brandstetter admitted as much - explains the weird discrepancies in the cable origins, as well as the false Oswald description that went out on DPD channels.

Bingo!

This is a classic military cover and deception operation (of course, the United States Military had plethora of senior staff officers working as "focal-point" operatives, augmenting the Central Intelligence Agency's more "deniable" and exotic operations).

To quote "United States Joint Chiefs of Staff Memorandum of Policy No. 90" (dated 1 February 1955) :

"...Military Cover and Deception is the art of causing the enemy to derive and accept a particular appreciation of our dispositions, capabilities, and intentions so that the enemy will react in a specific preselected manner disadvantageous to himself and advantageous to our forces..."

All of the actions taken by United States Army Reserve Col. John “Jack” Alston Crichton and his operatives in the 488th Military Intelligence Detachment follow the above cited US Joint Chiefs Memorandum, a cover and deception operation against a targeted enemy element.

The enemy in this case being the taxpaying citizens of the United States of America.

Edited June 21, 2020 by Robert Montenegro

[Steve Thomas]

2 hours ago, Robert Montenegro said:

To quote "United States Joint Chiefs of Staff Memorandum of Policy No. 90" (dated 1 February 1955) :

"...Military Cover and Deception is the art of causing the enemy to derive and accept a particular appreciation of our dispositions, capabilities, and intentions so that the enemy will react in a specific preselected manner disadvantageous to himself and advantageous to our forces..."

Sun Tzu. The Art of War. 5th Century BC

18. All warfare is based on deception.

19. Hence, when able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must seem inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near.

20. Hold out baits to entice the enemy. Feign disorder, and crush him.

Steve Thomas